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Monday, June 6, 2016

Monday Movie Mania - Lucy

This is another movie I'd wanted to see in the theater, but it was released while I organizing the painting and flooring of the house in Houston. Or trying to. The contractor quit in the middle of the project because I knew more than he did about home improvements, and it didn't sit well with his ego.

This was the last of the unseen movies we caught during the HBO free weekend while dealing with the Flu from Hell.

Luc Beeson's writing is pretty eclectic, and Lucy was no exception. It's a weird mix of Asian martial arts flick and what Stanley Kubrick may have intended 2001: A Space Odyssey to be. It's not intended to give you an absolute resolution to the story, but to gets you to ask questions about the nature and intent of what we call life. It's a story you're either going to get, or it's going to drive you insane trying to understand it.

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SPOILERS

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PROS
1) Scarlet Johansson excels at bringing a certain vulnerability and toughness to a character that make the next jump in evolution. She realizes what CH4, the mind-enhancing drug that was surgically implanted in her, is doing to her and takes full advantage.

2) Beeson uses the comparison of his/Scarlet's character to the Australopithecus afarensis discovery nicknamed "Lucy" to show the next stage of human evolution. In fact, he uses the comparison directly by having the two Lucys meet in a touching scene near the end.

3) Lucy states that she has lost all emotions because of CH4. That's not true. They've been altered to something else entirely. She needs Police Capt. Del Rio to keep her grounded long enough to share what she's learned. Johansson's performance as a human losing what we consider "normal emotions" is suitably creepy and sympathetic at the same time.

4) Amr Waked rocks as the confused, but faithful, sidekick Del Rio, through the second part of the movie.

CONS
1) The majority of the flick's science left something to be desired, but the miscues weren't distracting enough to lose interest in the story.

This was one of those rare movies I watched twice. It shows the possibilities inherent in simply being alive. It also asks if we limit ourselves and our opportunities by our own perceptions.

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